Stephen Kinzer

This is the first full-length account of the CIA's coup d'etat in Iran in 1953—a covert operation whose consequences are still with us today. Written by a noted New York Times journalist, this book is based on documents about the coup (including some lengthy internal CIA reports) that have now been declassified. Stephen Kinzer's compelling narrative is at once a vital piece of history, a cautionary tale, and a real-life espionage thriller.

An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror

All the Shah's Men

The bestselling author of All the Shah’s Men and The Brothers tells the astonishing story of the man who oversaw the CIA’s secret medical experiments of the 1950s and ’60s. The visionary chemist Sidney Gottlieb was the CIA’s master magician and gentlehearted torturer—the agency’s “poisoner in chief.” As head of the MK-ULTRA mind control project, he directed brutal experiments at secret prisons on three continents. He made pills, powders, and potions that could kill or maim without a trace—including some intended for Fidel Castro and other foreign leaders. He paid prostitutes to lure clients to CIA-run bordellos, where they were secretly dosed with mind-altering drugs. His experiments spread LSD across the United States, making him a hidden godfather of the 1960s counterculture. For years he was the chief supplier of spy tools used by CIA officers around the world. Stephen Kinzer, author of groundbreaking books about U.S. clandestine operations, draws on new documentary research and original interviews to bring to life one of the most powerful unknown Americans of the twentieth century. Gottlieb’s reckless experiments on “expendable” human subjects destroyed many lives, yet he considered himself deeply spiritual. He lived in a remote cabin without running water, meditated, and rose before dawn to milk his goats. During his twenty-two years at the CIA, Gottlieb worked in the deepest secrecy. Only since his death has it become possible to piece together his astonishing career at the intersection of extreme science and covert action. Poisoner in Chief reveals him as a clandestine conjurer on an epic scale.

Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA Search for Mind Control

Poisoner in Chief

Stephen Schlesinger

John H. Coatsworth

"Bitter Fruit" is a comprehensive and insightful account of the CIA operation to overthrow the democratically elected government of Jacobo Arbenz of Guatemala in 1954. First published in 1982, this book has become a classic, a textbook case of the relationship between the United States and the Third World. The authors make extensive use of U.S. government documents and interviews with former CIA and other officials. It is a warning of what happens when the United States abuses its power.

The Story of the American Coup in Guatemala, Revised and Expanded (David Rockefeller Center Series on Latin American Studies)

Bitter Fruit

A joint biography of John Foster Dulles and Allen Dulles, who led the United States into foreign adventures that decisively shaped today's world as the Cold War was at its peak.

The Brothers: John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, and Their Secret World War

Offers a narrative history of the role of the U.S. in a series of coups, revolutions, and invasions that toppled fourteen foreign governments, from the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy in 1893 to the 2003 war in Iraq, and examines the sometimes disastrous long-term repercussions of such operations. Reprint.

America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq

Overthrow

life and war in Nicaragua

Blood of brothers

أتباع الشاه

Recalls the forgotten political debate at the beginning of the twentieth century over America's role in the world, with the country's political and intellectual leaders advocating either imperial expansion or restraint.

Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Twain, and the Birth of American Empire

The True Flag

Reports on conditions in Turkey at the beginning of the twenty-first century, looking at the country's potential to become a world leader, and examining the factors that could keep that from happening.

Turkey Between Two Worlds

Crescent and Star

Rwanda's rebirth and the man who dreamed it

A thousand hills

"MK-ULTRA gab ihm die Macht, über Leben und Tod anderer Menschen zu entscheiden." Grausame Menschenversuche in Geheimgefängnissen, neue Foltermethoden, bewusstseinsverändernde Drogen in Fake-Bordellen und nicht nachweisbare Gift-Attentate – alles im Auftrag der CIA und amerikanischer Präsidenten. Das ist nicht der Plot eines Hollywoodstreifens, sondern Teil der Biografie des Chemikers Dr. Sidney Gottlieb, einer der tödlichsten Geheimwaffen der CIA bis in die 1970er-Jahre. Als Leiter des streng geheimen MK-ULTRA-Projekts forschte er an Wegen, das Bewusstsein von Menschen zu kontrollieren. In Geheimoperationen war Gottlieb außerdem federführend bei Attentatsversuchen der CIA auf missliebige Regierungschefs wie Fidel Castro, Tschu En Lai oder Patrice Lumumba. Der Journalist und Bestsellerautor Stephen Kinzer bringt Licht in dieses dunkle und nicht enden wollende Kapitel der amerikanischen Geschichte. Anhand neuer dokumentarischer Recherchen und Originalinterviews zeigt Kinzer, wie skrupellos die US-Regierung – auch in Zusammenarbeit mit anderen Nationen – Experimente an "entbehrlichen" Menschen durchführte, um dem vermeintlich höheren Zweck der inneren Sicherheit zu dienen.

Sidney Gottlieb, die CIA und das LSD – wie der amerikanische Geheimdienst versuchte, das Bewusstsein zu kontrollieren

Project Mind Control

Visiting Fellow at the Watson Institute for International Studies Stephen Kinzer

The life story of one-time revolutionary Paul Kagame describes how he returned from exile to lead a modern-day coup, rose to the position of president of the devastated country of Rwanda, and has led an effective and ambitious campaign to stabilize and revive his once shattered nation. By the author of All the Shah's Men.

Rwanda's Rebirth and the Man Who Dreamed It

A Thousand Hills

Life and War in Nicaragua

Blood of Brothers

In this concise and readable book Stephen Kinzer takes the reader on a tour of modern Middle Eastern history, highlighting the errors, alliances and betrayals all acted out for what was shortsightedly seen as being in the interest of Western states.

Old Friends and New Alliances: Saudi Arabia, Israel, Turkey, Iran

Reset Middle East

Reset introduces an astonishing parade of characters: sultans, shahs, oil tycoons, mullahs, women of the world, liberators, oppressors, and dreamers of every sort. Woven together into a dazzling panorama, they help us see the Middle East in a new way—and lead to startling proposals for how the world's most volatile region might be reshaped. In this paradigm-shifting book, Stephen Kinzer argues that the United States needs to break out of its Cold War mindset and find new partners in the Middle East. Only two Muslim countries in the Middle East have long experience with democracy: Iran and Turkey. They are logical partners for the United States. Besides proposing this new "power triangle," Kinzer tells the turbulent story of America's relations with its traditional partners in the Middle East, Israel and Saudi Arabia, and argues they must be reshaped to fit the new realities of the twenty-first century. Kinzer's provocative new view of the Middle East—and of America's role there—will richly entertain while moving a vital policy debate beyond the stale alternatives of the last fifty years.

Iran, Turkey, and America's Future

Reset

Reese Erlich

Expertly researched and deftly reported, Dateline Havana is a probing exposé of U.S. policy and the future of Cuba on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution. Covering art, music, and Cuban politics, Reese Erlich creates a tableau that is at once moving and informative.

Stephen Kinzer

About

Books

Join the club